Duck Tembusu Virus Exhibits Pathogenicity to Kunming Mice by Intracerebral Inoculation

In this study, Kunming mice were used as the animal models to study the pathogenicity of TMUV. Three groups of 3-week-old female Kunming mice (n=15 mice per group) were infected with the SDSG strain of TMUV in 50μL allantoic fluid (104.8 ELD50/ 0.2ml) respectively by the intracerebral (i.c.), subcutaneous (s.c.) and intranasal (i.n.) routes. The control group (n=15 mice) was inoculated with 50μL sterile phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Clinical signs, gross and microscopic lesions, viral loads in different tissues, and serum antibody titers were examined and recorded. Kunming mice infected intracerebrally showed typical clinical symptoms, including severe hindlimb paralysis, weight loss and death. Only dead mice presented severe intestinal mucosal edema. No gross lesions were observed in mice sequentially euthanized. However, microscopic lesions in the brain, spleen, liver, kidney and lung were very typical including varying degrees of viral encephalitis, lymphocytes depletion, liver cell necrosis and nephritis, etc. Viral loads in different tissues were detected by the SYBR Green I real-time PCR assay. Viral loads in the brain, liver and spleen were first detected and maintained a longer time, which indicated that these organs may be the target organs of TMUV. The level of viral loads was consistent with the severity of clinical signs and microscopic lesions in different tissues. The neutralizing antibody began to seroconvert at 8dpi. Clinical signs, microscopic lesions, viral loads and serum neutralizing antibodies weren’t observed in other groups. In summary, TMUV can cause systemic infections and death in Kunming mice by i.c., which provides some experimental basis for further study of the significance of TMUV in public health

VNE solution for network differentiated QoS and security requirements: from the perspective of deep reinforcement learning

The rapid development and deployment of network services has brought a series of challenges to researchers. On the one hand, the needs of Internet end users/applications reflect the characteristics of travel alienation, and they pursue different perspectives of service quality. On the other hand, with the explosive growth of information in the era of big data, a lot of private information is stored in the network. End users/applications naturally start to pay attention to network security. In order to solve the requirements of differentiated quality of service (QoS) and security, this paper proposes a virtual network embedding (VNE) algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL), aiming at the CPU, bandwidth, delay and security attributes of substrate network. DRL agent is trained in the network environment constructed by the above attributes. The purpose is to deduce the mapping probability of each substrate node and map the virtual node according to this probability. Finally, the breadth first strategy (BFS) is used to map the virtual links. In the experimental stage, the algorithm based on DRL is compared with other representative algorithms in three aspects: long term average revenue, long term revenue consumption ratio and acceptance rate. The results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper has achieved good experimental results, which proves that the algorithm can be effectively applied to solve the end user/application differentiated QoS and security requirements

Gut microbiome is associated with metabolic syndrome accompanied by elevated gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase in men

It is predicted that by 2035, metabolic syndrome (MS) will be found in nearly more than half of our adult population, seriously affecting the health of our body. MS is usually accompanied by the occurrence of abnormal liver enzymes, such as elevated gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT). More and more studies have shown that the gut microbiota is involved in MS; however, the correlation between gut microbiota and MS with elevated GGT has not been studied comprehensively. Especially, there are few reports about its role in the physical examination of the population of men with MS and elevated GGT. By using the whole-genome shotgun sequencing technology, we conducted a genome-wide association study of the gut microbiome in 66 participants diagnosed as having MS accompanied by high levels of GGT (case group) and 66 participants with only MS and normal GGT level (control group). We found that the number of gut microbial species was reduced in participants in the case group compared to that of the control group. The overall microbial composition between the two groups is of significant difference. The gut microbiota in the case group is characterized by increased levels of “harmful bacteria” such as Megamonas hypermegale, Megamonas funiformis, Megamonas unclassified, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Fusobacterium mortiferum and decreased levels of “beneficial bacteria” such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Eubacterium eligens, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum, Bacteroides dorei, and Alistipes putredinis. Moreover, the pathways of POLYAMSYN-PWY, ARG+POLYAMINE-SYN, PWY-6305, and GOLPDLCAT-PWY were also increased in the case group, which may play a role in the elevation of GGT by producing amine, polyamine, putrescine, and endogenous alcohol. Taken together, there are apparent changes in the composition of the gut microbiome in men with MS and abnormal GGT levels, and it is high time to discover specific gut microbiome as a potential therapeutic target in that population. More in-depth studies of relevant mechanism could offer some new methods for the treatment of MS with elevated GGT

A web knowledge-driven multimodal retrieval method in computational social systems: unsupervised and robust graph convolutional hashing

Multimodal retrieval has received widespread consideration since it can commendably provide massive related data support for the development of computational social systems (CSSs). However, the existing works still face the following challenges: 1) rely on the tedious manual marking process when extended to CSS, which not only introduces subjective errors but also consumes abundant time and labor costs; 2) only using strongly aligned data for training, lacks concern for the adjacency information, which makes the poor robustness and semantic heterogeneity gap difficult to be effectively fit; and 3) mapping features into real-valued forms, which leads to the characteristics of high storage and low retrieval efficiency. To address these issues in turn, we have designed a multimodal retrieval framework based on web-knowledge-driven, called unsupervised and robust graph convolutional hashing (URGCH). The specific implementations are as follows: first, a “secondary semantic self-fusion” approach is proposed, which mainly extracts semantic-rich features through pretrained neural networks, constructs the joint semantic matrix through semantic fusion, and eliminates the process of manual marking; second, a “adaptive computing” approach is designed to construct enhanced semantic graph features through the knowledge-infused of neighborhoods and uses graph convolutional networks for knowledge fusion coding, which enables URGCH to sufficiently fit the semantic modality gap while obtaining satisfactory robustness features; Third, combined with hash learning, the multimodality data are mapped into the form of binary code, which reduces storage requirements and improves retrieval efficiency. Eventually, we perform plentiful experiments on the web dataset. The results evidence that URGCH exceeds other baselines about $1\%$ – $3.7\%$ in mean average precisions (MAPs), displays superior performance in all the aspects, and can meaningfully provide multimodal data retrieval services to CSS

The clinical effect of a strategy called transcystic gallbladder-preserving cholecystolithotomy based on endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography for cholecystolithiasis: A retrospective study from a single center

BackgroundCholedocholithiasis complicated with cholecystolithiasis is a common disease. This study explores a novel strategy, called ERCP-based transcystic gallbladder-preserving cholecystolithotomy, for the simultaneous removal of common bile duct stones and gallbladder stones.MethodsFrom December 2018 to June 2021, all patients with cholecystolithiasis and common bile duct stones who met the criteria for gallbladder preservation in our hospital were included in the study and prospectively followed up.ResultsWe included 48 patients, including 20 patients with acute biliary pancreatitis. All patients successfully underwent ERCP to remove common bile duct stones. One patient had gallbladder perforation during gallbladder-preserving cholecystolithotomy. The guide wire successfully entered the gallbladder, and the transpapillary gallbladder metal-covered stent was successfully placed in 44 patients. The technical success rate was 91.67% (44/48). All stones were removed in 34 patients, for a clinical success rate of 77.27% (34/44). The total postoperative complication rate was 6.25% (3/48), with 2 cases of pancreatitis (4.17%) and 1 case of cholangitis (2.08%). Three patients were lost to follow-up. Among the 31 patients who were followed up for a mean of 27 months (6–40), 5 patients (16.13%) experienced gallstone recurrence. The recurrence rates at 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months and 36 months were 0%, 3.23%, 6.45%, 12.9%, and 16.13%, respectively.ConclusionFor patients with cholecystolithiasis and common bile duct stones, ERCP-based transcystic gallbladder-preserving cholecystolithotomy without gallbladder incision can preserve gallbladder structure, and this procedure is safe and feasible for the protection of gallbladder function.Clinical trial registration: The study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, and the registry number is ChiCTR1900028006

Synthesis of micro-nano hierarchical structured LiFePO(4)/C composite with both superior high-rate performance and high tap density

Efforts were made to synthesize LiFePO(4)/C composites showing both high rate capability and high tap density. First, monoclinic phase FePO(4)center dot 2H(2)O with micro-nano hierarchical structures are synthesized using a hydrothermal method, which are then lithiated to LiFePO(4)/C also with hierarchical structures by a simple rheological phase method. The primary structures of FePO(4 center dot)2H(2)O are nanoplates with similar to 30 nm thickness, and the secondary structures of the materials are intertwisted micro-scale rings. The LiFePO(4)/C materials lithiated from these specially structured precursors also have hierarchical structures, showing discharge capacities of more than 120, 110, and 90 mAh g(-1) at rates of 5 C, 10 C and 20 C, respectively, and high tap density of 1.4 g cm(-3) as cathode materials for lithium ion batteries. Since tap density is an important factor that needs to be considered in fabricating real batteries in industry, these hierarchical structured LiFePO(4)/C moves closer to real and large-scale applications.National Science Foundation of China[20901062]; Central Universities[2082002

Tembusu Virus in Ducks, China

In China in 2010, a disease outbreak in egg-laying ducks was associated with a flavivirus. The virus was isolated and partially sequenced. The isolate exhibited 87%–91% identity with strains of Tembusu virus, a mosquito-borne flavivirus of the Ntaya virus group. These findings demonstrate emergence of Tembusu virus in ducks

Na⁺ Lattice Doping Induces Oxygen Vacancies to Achieve High Capacity and Mitigate Voltage Decay of Li-Rich Cathodes

In this work, we synthesized 1D hollow square rod-shaped MnO2, and then obtained Na+ lattice doped-oxygen vacancy lithium-rich layered oxide by a simple molten salt template strategy. Different from the traditional synthesis method, the hollow square rod-shaped MnO2 in NaCl molten salt provides numerous anchor points for Li, Co, and Ni ions to directly prepare Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2 on the original morphology. Meanwhile, Na+ is also introduced for lattice doping and induces the formation of oxygen vacancy. Therefrom, the modulated sample not only inherits the 1D rod-like morphology but also achieves Na+ lattice doping and oxygen vacancy endowment, which facilitates Li+ diffusion and improves the structural stability of the material. To this end, transmission electron microscopy, high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and other characterization are used for analysis. In addition, density functional theory is used to further analyze the influence of oxygen vacancy generation on local transition metal ions, and theoretically explain the mechanism of the electrochemical performance of the samples. Therefore, the modulated sample has a high discharge capacity of 282 mAh g−1 and a high capacity retention of 90.02% after 150 cycles. At the same time, the voltage decay per cycle is only 0.0028 V, which is much lower than that of the material (0.0038 V per cycle) prepared without this strategy. In summary, a simple synthesis strategy is proposed, which can realize the morphology control of Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2, doping of Na+ lattice, and inducing the formation of oxygen vacancy, providing a feasible idea for related exploration

Enhancing the Electrochemical Performance of Ni-Rich LiNi0.88Co0.09Al0.03O2 Cathodes through Tungsten-Doping for Lithium-Ion Batteries

The tungsten-doped (0.5 and 1.0 mol%) LiNi0.88Co0.09Al0.03O2 (NCA) cathode materials are manufactured to systematically examine the stabilizing effect of W-doping. The 1.0 mol% W-doped LiNi0.88Co0.09Al0.03O2 (W1.0-NCA) cathodes deliver 173.5 mAh g−1 even after 100 cycles at 1 C, which is 95.2% of the initial capacity. While the capacity retention of NCA cathodes cycled in identical conditions is 86.3%. The optimal performances of the W1.0-NCA could be ascribed to the suppression of impendence increase and the decrease in anisotropic volume change, as well as preventing the collapse of structures during cycling. These findings demonstrate that the W-doping considerably enhances the electrochemical performance of NCA, which has potential applications in the development of Ni-rich layered cathode materials that can display high capacity with superior cycling stability